SVI-605B HDD

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By LS120

Expert (106)

LS120's picture

19-09-2016, 10:28

looking for info on the SVI-605B HDD unit as i have several 605B fdd's and wanted to get/make a Hdd unit..

any info , plans, etc.... would be great..

Thanks
BA-team

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By gdx

Enlighted (6069)

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19-09-2016, 11:09

The SVI-605 seems to be a case for the computer SVI-328 that contains a slots selector, a location for two 5.25" disk drive. A optional HDD of 10MB can replace a disk drive.

http://kilroy71.fastmail.fm/gallery/Spectravideo/#single:201...

It's not for MSX.

By LS120

Expert (106)

LS120's picture

19-09-2016, 11:13

thanks i know it's not as tosay MSX but the per-curser to it .. MSX.09.. but looking to set up a hdd version if i can..

By gdx

Enlighted (6069)

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19-09-2016, 11:21

I do not know which interface is used for the HDD. If this is the IDE, you can probably put an old CF card instead of HDD.

By LS120

Expert (106)

LS120's picture

20-09-2016, 00:24

hi GDX the site wont load that you listed above..

oO

By LS120

Expert (106)

LS120's picture

20-09-2016, 03:11

i dont know what type it was either and there is very little info on them.. may have been SCSI or MFM/RLL or IDE. thats why im looking for info etc.. even to find someone who has one with the HDD in the 605B.. Question

By Roger Schmidt

Supporter (1)

Roger Schmidt's picture

03-10-2016, 09:05

IIRC it's was called 605C and the hard drive wasn't ide it was FDC based

By Sander

Founder (1871)

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04-10-2016, 15:12

It's an MFM harddisk. I had one, with the harddisk drive controller. However, the MFM disk was already toasted when I bought it. Since there's no rom on the harddisk controller, we expect that either there was a boot sector on the harddisk or you needed to acces it through disks (cp/m or otherwise).

By gdx

Enlighted (6069)

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04-10-2016, 15:46

Oh! 50 pins as SCSI.

By maxis

Champion (512)

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04-10-2016, 17:42

gdx wrote:

Oh! 50 pins as SCSI.

It could be well the predecessor of SCSI -> SASI taking into account the region where it was developed and the age.

By NYYRIKKI

Enlighted (6016)

NYYRIKKI's picture

04-10-2016, 19:04

Sander wrote:

It's an MFM harddisk. I had one, with the harddisk drive controller. However, the MFM disk was already toasted when I bought it. Since there's no rom on the harddisk controller, we expect that either there was a boot sector on the harddisk or you needed to acces it through disks (cp/m or otherwise).

This is very interesting... I only very lately even hard that there was a HDD for SVI-3x8... As it is MFM disk I first came in to conclusion that it must have been connected to FDD controller and somehow they have managed to format the first track with FM instead of MFM... How ever as now I can see that there really has been an separate HDD controller it seems that my theory must be wrong... If there is no some secret boot code that I just don't know (SVI does not have a way to execute ROM in expansion) then indeed the only option that is left is that the HDD "driver" must have been loaded from FDD.... (To be honest... That would have been ugly even in early 80's standards)

If you ever manage to debug information like what I/O ports the device has used (SVI can't have memory mapped devices) then let me know... This indeed seems like a big fat mystery device...

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